Prince Friso of the Netherlands, the younger brother of the King, has died
aged 44 after being caught up in an avalanche last year.

“His Majesty the King (Willem-Alexander) announces with great regret that this morning his highness Prince Johan Friso ... died at the Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague, aged 44,” a palace statement said.

The palace statement said that the prince, who was based in London with his wife and two children, “died from complications as a result of oxygen shortages during his ski accident.”

He had “minimal consciousness” and his condition was unchanged, the palace said.

The respected financier was skiing off piste in the Austrian resort of Lech when the accident happened, in February 2012.

At the time the alert level was at the second highest, posing a particular risk away from the prepared ski slopes. The friend he was with was carrying an avalanche “air bag” and escaped without serious injury, while Prince Friso was buried beneath a 100-foot-wide slab of snow and was only found with the help of a signalling device he was carrying.

It then took nearly 50 minutes to resuscitate the prince after he was pulled from the snow – time that may have caused permanent damage, said Dr Wolfgang Koller, head of trauma at the Innsbruck hospital.

The prince was taken to the private Wellington Hospital in London for treatment, and in November the royal family said he was showing signs of “minimal consciousness” – leading to hopes that he was returning to health.

His wife, Princess Mabel, a highly-respected human rights specialist, was CEO of Nelson Mandela’s Global Elders group until she resigned following his accident, to keep a vigil at his bedside. The prince renounced his claim to the Dutch throne to marry Mabel, because he did not ask permission from parliament before their 2004 wedding. Mabel had previously been involved with a Dutch mobster, Klaas Bruinsma, who was shot and killed in 1991 in front of the Amsterdam Hilton hotel. Failure to declare this meant that permission could not be granted.

The couple acknowledged being “naive and incomplete” in what they told parliament, but the Prince went on television to clarify his position, and said: “I am planning to remain available for my mother or brother if it’s needed, for supporting roles.”

The couple went on to have two daughters - Luana, eight, and seven-year-old Zaria - who lead a low-key life, attending a primary school near their home in Kew, west London.

But in July this year, 17 months after his accident, the prince was moved back to The Hague, which some have seen as a sign that he was going to be allowed to die in his native country.

However Selma Tromp, vice president of the Netherlands Society of Neurology, told The Daily Telegraph she believed he was moved back to The Hague because there was no further hospital treatment available to him, and he was to be given home care.

“There’s no suggestion that the life support machine was turned off by doctors,” she said.

“The palace said he died from complications, so it doesn’t sound like there was anything electronic that was being used to keep him alive. He was stable.

“But complications are very common for patients in a coma.”

Mark Rutte, the prime minister, described it as “a black and sad day,” and said that his thoughts were with the family – in particular his mother Beatrix, who abdicated in April, becoming Princess Beatrix.

“For Princess Beatrix the loss is indescribably great,” he said. “A child dying is the worst that can happen to a parent.”

Prince Friso’s wife was said to have spent Sunday – the day of her 45th birthday – at his bedside.

Dutch television stations on Monday night altered their schedules to broadcast tributes to the prince, who was much loved in theNetherlands.